Introduction To The Calculus of Variations And Its Applications

This book introduces the technique of dynamic programming and shows how it can be used to solve problems in the calculus of variations. It discusses the basic elements of elasticity theory and some variational formulations of the relevant boundary-value problems.

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This comprehensive text provides all information necessary for an introductory course on the calculus of variations and optimal control theory. Following a thorough discussion of the basic problem, including sufficient conditions for optimality, the theory and techniques are extended to problems with a free end point, a free boundary, auxiliary and inequality constraints, leading to a study of optimal control theory.